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Although the significance of technological progress in economic development is well-established in theory and policy, it has remained challenging to agree upon shared priorities for strategies and policies. This paper aims to develop a model of how policymakers can develop effective and easy to communicate strategies for science, technology and economic development.

By integrating insights from economic complexity, competitiveness and foresight literature, a replicable research framework for analysing the opportunities and challenges of technological revolutions for small catching-up countries is developed. The authors highlight key lessons from piloting this framework for informing the strategy and policies for bioeconomy in Estonia towards 2030–2050.

The integration of economic complexity research with traditional foresight methods establishes a solid analytical basis for a data-driven analysis of the opportunities for industrial upgrading. The increase in the importance of regional alliances in the global economy calls for further advancement of the analytical toolbox. Integration of complexity, global value chains and export potential assessment approaches offers valuable direction for further research, as it enables discussion of the opportunities of moving towards more knowledge-intensive economic activities along with the opportunities for winning international market share.

The research merges insights from the economic complexity, competitiveness and foresight literature in a novel way and illustrates the applicability and priority-setting in a real-life setting.

This paper seeks to examine academic literature and business regulation for land acquisition in Estonia in relation to small and medium enterprises (SMEs). The objective of the paper is to give information beneficial for the enhancement of the business environment, for SMEs. Furthermore, to assist foreign SMEs decision making related to land acquisition within Estonia, an important country within the “Northern Dimension” of the expanded European Union (EU).

This exploratory paper makes use of World Bank Surveys, primary business law sources together with an interview from a business within the country assessed giving a grass‐roots perspective.

The investigation reaffirms the importance of SMEs within former economies from a Soviet background such as Estonia. It also emphasises the correlation between economic growth, land acquisition and business law and identifies the significance and “key” aspects of land acquisition for an SME. Furthermore, it assesses Estonia's exemption from the movement of free capital within the EU affecting land acquisition by a foreign SME. It shows it is slightly more difficult for an SME from another EU Member State to acquire land (including a size restriction on agricultural land). Additionally, the notarisation process could be reformed in Estonia which would quicken and cheapen the procedure for land acquisition by SMEs. It emphasises that overall a very positive progression has been made by Estonia within its business law environment conducive to land acquisition by SMEs.

This research demonstrates the reality of Estonian land acquisition regulation and its positive progression. It shows that for an entity from another EU state (other than Estonia) it is restricted from acquiring certain types of land. Additionally, unofficial costs, a legacy from the Soviet period are almost non‐existent within the Estonian land registration system. Some of the gaps within the World Bank Surveys are filled by the interview, although further evaluation is needed from other academics.

The research highlights the importance of land acquisition for SMEs, a new EU Member State's exemption from the free movement of capital and the reality of land acquisition regulation for an SME in Estonia.